Susan Harber, Daily News Journal, March 15, 2015
Elmword, built in 1815, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Elmwood, also known as “Rose Hill,” is a Greek Revival treasure built in 1815 and retains standing dominance of five family generations working the land.
The Hord farm, with nine existing acres, on Old Nashville Highway was designated on the National Register of Historic Places in October 1973. In its heyday, the Hord property near Stones River Battlefield covered 1,400 acres.
In 1842, Thomas Hord, a Hawkins County lawyer, purchased 840 acres and designed and supervised the construction of the Flemish-style home. Thomas’ first wife Mary died in 1851 after bearing nine children. Amelia, a talented gardener from Louisiana, wed Thomas in 1859 and bore two children. Little did he know he would dwell within a crossfire of the Civil War within 20 years. While Thomas favored the Union, his oldest son fought bravely in the Confederate Army.
Hord’s acreage off Nashville Pike was fertile farmland adjacent to Overall Creek and near the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad line. This railroad was strategic to the Battle of Stones River to both Confederal Gen. Braxton Bragg and Union Gen. William Rosecrans.
The stunning brick home is a two-story, three-bay with a pedimented portico, gable roof, two-story porch, white columns and paired chimneys. The interior accommodates a staircase, mantels, white ash floors, 13-inch walls, and walnut baseboard. The kitchen had a large fireplace with a swinging crane. The second floor had looms for servants spinning cloth; and the attic retained storage for food.
Thomas Hord was a mastermind in farming and thrived in the cotton export market. By 1862, the farm harvested corn, wheat and hay and h eld extensive livestock. On the farm were large barns, slave quarters, woodworking shop, six log stables, two corn cribs, smokehouse, corn house, and two poultry houses. Hord was an antisecessionist and antiwar activist. Yet, when the conflict began, he supported Tennessee and the Confederacy. At age 60 and in failing health, Hord saw Federal soldiers from a second story window advancing on the turnpike directly toward his home. Capt. Sam Shortle informed Hord that he would camp by his home. From March 1852 until February 1864, Elmwood was in a nightmare every single day.
With Elmwood laying in direct path of the converging Northern and Southern armies, the family found themselves in a siege of terror.
The Confederates built a fort on the creek, while the Union Army built a fort on a railroad behind the house. The grand home was struck by a cannon with 16year old daughter Alice witnessing the volley.
Union physicians occupied the house as a hospital, and the family was cornered into one small room of the home below the stairs.
Thomas’ wife, Amel ia, was pregnant, yet bravely assisted with the wounded. Thomas describes his Brussels carpets as soaked in blood. Over 500 soldiers were wounded and dying in and out of the house. The back parlor was utilized as an operating room. Federal doctors and marred s oldiers remained on the Hord Farm until spring 1863. Blood stains remained for decades on the interior walls.
A cavalry skirmish stirred through the grounds on Dec. 31, 1862, during Stones River Battle just beside the main house. The U nion soldiers pillaged buildings and fences and stole livestock and c rops.
Hord’s slaves were coerced by these same soldiers into labor on Union stockade forts behind the home. Brig.
Gen. John Wharton chased the Union cavalry across the farm to Overall Creek and found an ammunition supply train guarded by the Ohio Cavalry. Confederates occupied the Hord house, and bullets slashed through the walls of slave quarters.
For a moment in time, the Union right flank was endangered.
A second notable skirmish took place on Dec. 4, 1864, during Forrest’s Raid when William Bate attacked Federal Blockhouse #7 protecting the rail crossing Overall Creek.
The Indiana Cavalry initiated the skirmish on the creek. Col. Johnson and Gen. Milroy of the Union army battled Confederates in late afternoon between the creek and Hord house.
At the end of the day, Milroy retreated; yet Blockhouse #7 stood strong for the Federals.
By December 29, 1862, Rosecrans was present in town and desired considerably more from the Hord estate on behalf of his army. Hord furnished the Union with 5,000 bushels of corn. He also turned over large quantities of oats and hay, as well as massive numbers of horses, mules, cattle, hogs and corn.
The Hord farm was ravaged in the Civil War. More than 6,000 casualties were reported passing through the grounds of the farm.
Proprietor Thomas Hord submitted governm ent claims of losses totaling $60,000; but he received a very small amount in compensation. When Thomas died in September 1865, his estate was willed to Amelia and their eight children. Amelia continued to manage the farm but was financially strapped and sustained no hands for labor.
Miraculously, son Thomas Epps Hord, b orn during the Civil War, and his wife, Louise, inherited the home and turned around the dire circumstances in coming years. The house was renovated, and the farm turned successful with his fortitude and determination. Cotton exports resumed with sharecropper labor and flourished once more.
Thomas Epps Hord, an outstanding citizen, moved on to serve as county judge for three decades on Quarterly Court and was a Tennessee state senator in 1908. Successively, his son Thomas Hord Jr., a prominent farmer, along with Mary Wheeler, lived in the home.
When the estate was added to the registry in 1973, the inventory indicated a home, carriage house, smokehouse, cabin, stock barn, log corn crib, milking barn, milk house, granary, tenant house, and silo. Several of the historical wooden farm outbuildings remain intact. The operation of the home was on a grand scale and has been maintained through loving and hard-working hands.
Elmwood is a historical landmark that we cherish in our county today.